Session Ends with No Medicaid Decision, Talks Continue

Another Utah legislative session has ended without a decision on Medicaid, but Governor Gary Herbert and healthcare advocates are declaring a victory of sorts.

Late in the session, Governor Herbert came out with his long-awaited proposal to get health coverage for Utah’s poorest citizens. He wants to use federal dollars to buy private coverage for low-income Utahns, but he first needs approval from the federal government. He asked state lawmakers not to limit him with any legislation that would hinder negotiations with the feds.

But the House refused to consider the Senate-endorsed plan. Speaker Rebecca Lockhart has said throughout the session that she does not want to accept any federal dollars to expand Obamacare in Utah, and she maintains that position. But the governor says if he can get his proposal approved by the feds, he expects the legislature to embrace it. House Majority Leader Brad Dee is noncommittal.

“It’s premature to say that we’d vote for any deal for any negotiation that he might have. We haven’t seen it. If he goes back to make another deal, let’s look at it,” Dee says.

Healthcare advocates say the process is not over, but they are optimistic that a solution to the so-called coverage gap is coming. RyLee Curtis is a Medicaid analyst for Utah Health Policy Project.

“We didn’t have any legislation passed that said Utah will not expand Medicaid, and that is a huge win. We were very close to that last year. You know, we’re in a way better position this year than we were last year at the end of the legislative session, and that’s a win in itself too,”

The governor says that if he is able to strike a deal in DC, he will call a special legislative session to consider it.

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Time is running out for the Utah legislature to make a decision on what they want to do about health insurance for low-income Utahns. There are several health reform proposals in the legislature that have yet to be approved, with only four working days left in the session. But at this point, the governor has the power to move forward with his plan, so long as lawmakers don’t stand in his way.

Governor Gary Herbert got some positive feedback Thursday on his plan to offer health insurance to low-income Utahns. Herbert visited a homeless health clinic in Salt Lake City and heard from citizens who do not qualify for insurance subsidies, but also do not qualify for Medicaid, leaving them in a coverage gap.

When Governor Gary Herbert laid out his Healthy Utah plan Thursday he said he was confident that it would get support from the state legislature as well as the federal government. But the governor’s proposal to accept federal money to help low-income Utahns buy health insurance may meet some resistance from Republicans in the state House…. especially the House speaker.

A Republican state senator has put forth a proposal for a partial expansion of Medicaid in Utah. Senate majority leaders say they are meeting Wednesday night to decide whether they will get behind this proposal, a different House plan that rejects Medicaid dollars, or another solution all together.

Republican Senator Brian Shiozawa is an Emergency Room doctor. So he’s all too familiar with the coverage gap - those 54,000 Utahns who live in poverty and can’t get health insurance.

The Supreme Court decided in 2012 to let states choose whether to expand Medicaid as it was intended under the Affordable Care Act. Now, more than a year and a half later, after reviewing proposals from the state house, the senate, and panels of stakeholders, Governor Herbert finally revealed his plan.